America's roads & highways are major revenue sources for state and local governments
(image source: http://www.autoinsurance.org/speeding-tickets/)
What do speed traps, parking tickets, toll roads, speed cameras and red light cameras all have in common? They are all major revenue sources for state and local governments. All over America today there are state and local governments that are drowning in debt. Many have chosen to use "traffic enforcement" as a way to raise desperately needed revenue.
According to the National Motorist Association, issuing speeding tickets raises somewhere between 4.5 billion and 6 billion dollars in the United States each year. And the average price of a speeding ticket just keeps going up. Today, the national average is about $150, but in many jurisdictions it is far higher. For example, more than 16 million traffic tickets are issued in the state of California each year, and the average fine is approximately $250.
America's roads are also being systematically transformed into a surveillance grid. The number of cameras watching our roads is absolutely exploding, and automated license plate readers are capturing hundreds of millions of data points on all of us. As you drive down the highway, a police vehicle coming up behind you can instantly read your license plate and pull up a whole host of information about you.
Back in the old days, the highways of America were great examples to the rest of the world of the tremendous liberties and freedoms that we enjoyed. Americans loved to hop into their vehicles and take a drive. But now government is sucking all of the fun out of driving. The control freak bureaucrats that dominate our political system have figured out that giant piles of money can be raised by turning our roads into revenue raising tools.
At this point things have gotten so bad that even some police officers are admitting what is going on. Just check out what a few of them told Car and Driver...
The president of a state police union isn’t pretending it doesn’t happen. James Tignanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan union, says, “When elected officials say, ‘We need more money,’ they can’t look to the department of public works to raise revenues, so where do they find it? Police departments.
“A lot of police chiefs will tell you the goal is to have nobody speeding through their community, but heaven forbid if it should actually happen—they’d be out of money,” Tignanelli says.
Police Chief Michael Reaves of Utica, Michigan, says the role of law enforcement has changed over the years. “When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if you’re a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues,” he says. “That’s just the reality nowadays.”
Our roads are slowly but surely being transformed into a revenue generating control grid. And this is just yet another example of how government feels the need to constantly watch, monitor, track and regulate everything that we do.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/americas-roads-have-been-turned-into-a-revenue-generating-surveillance-grid
The uncertain future of public roads:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/05/future-public-roads-private-hands/5490/
Privatization of U.S. 36 maintenance, operations launches highway into new era:
http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_22999649/privatization-u-s-36-launches-highway-into-new
The privatization of roads and highways by Walter Block:
http://mises.org/books/roads_web.pdf
Government revenue generated through speeding tickets infographics:
Every year, 34 million speeding tickets are issued in the US, roughly 65 per minute.
The average fine for a speeding ticket is $150.
These tickets generate $5,100,000,000 in revenue per year.
According to research, a 10 percent decrease in a city's economic growth results in a 6.4 percent increase in tickets issued.
Maybe you should slow down! Speeding ticket truths:
http://infographiclist.com/2012/03/11/maybe-you-should-slow-down-speeding-tickets-truths-infographic/
Speeding statistics, speeding facts:
http://www.autoinsurance.org/the-need-for-speed/